Tire Sensors

[Doug McDow]

Would it be better to put Slime in the tires to prevent flats, or to pay for sensors in the tires to tell you that you have a flat or low tire? I have Slime in my tires on my Polaris and have only had one flat in over 10 years, and it was a blow out. Could you give me your opinion? I don't like the idea of having my Elio towed or leaving it jacked up while having the tire fixed. I am assuming that there isn't a spare tire? Thanks for your input. Doug

 

[wizard of ahs]

No spare...I carry a mushroom plug kit....and pump
Done Slime, Roll-on, etc..
Been there done that, got the t-shirt

I WILL be getting the TPMS sensors.

 

[electroken]

Climbs on soap box...

I have a problem with TPMS in general, and with my Mazda3 in particular.

My 2008 Mazda3 has TPMS. I run the stock alloy wheels with the OEM sensors during the summer, and steelies with winter tires and no sensors in the winter. Here's the thing; the car doesn't even notice the sensors aren't present for 11 miles. It's just not going to detect a flat caused by a decent sized leak until 10 miles after I already know I have a flat.

Instead, it encourages people to neglect basic maintenance and to do nothing until the TPMS light comes on, after they have been running on significantly underinflated tires for a significant length of time.

... steps off soap box

 

[2barrel]

The problem with TPMS here in Taxachusetts is that when it gets cold ( which happens every year) the low pressure light comes on on all the cars with TPMS not to mention the cost of the darn TPMS valve stems. This never happened with my cars equipped with wheel speed sensors. Think of all the aggravation we could have avoided if Tom Brady had them on his balls!! As long as you have easy access to the valve stems a good tire pressure gauge is a few bucks and a Harbor Freight compressor costs less than a TPMS sensor. Have one of each in my wife and kids cars. Saves me from a lot of road calls. Think about how much more reliable today's tires are. Have had one flat on my Vette in 25 years. Knock on fiberglass!

 

[JEBar]

we have used the PressurePro PULSE system --- http://advantagepressurepro.com/ind...range>VIEWPRESSUREPRO'SCOMPLETECATALOG</font> --- for close to ten years .... its the only system I know if that's made in the USA .... the bottom line is, it works flawlessly .... as but one example, a while back we were headed west in the rig shown below .... we were headed west on an interstate 90 in Wisconsin when an alarm sounded showing a problem with the tire that can be seen on the golf cart trailer below .... I pulled over, got out of the truck, walked around the front of the truck and about the time I got to the passenger's side front tire, I saw the tire on the golf cart trailer explode .... you cannot see that trailer in our tow truck's mirrors, so without the alarm we wouldn't have known there was a problem until it was too late .... in my mind the system paid for itself at that moment .... there are several systems out there, I'm a big advocate for using a pressure monitoring system

 

[Jeff Miller]

I've seen tire pressure caps that seem like they would provide a very quick means of monitoring your tire pressure and cost very little. Something like these:

https://www.amazon.com/iSaddle-Pres...1481377023&sr=1-2&keywords=tire+pressure+caps

Does anybody have experience with them? If they work, then it is just another KISS mechanism to monitor tire pressure.

 

[Grumpy Cat]

I would never use slime in my tires. It is going to throw its balance off and I'm not sure you can get the crap out.

 

[Jeff H]

I've seen tire pressure caps that seem like they would provide a very quick means of monitoring your tire pressure and cost very little. Something like these:

https://www.amazon.com/iSaddle-Pres...1481377023&sr=1-2&keywords=tire+pressure+caps

Does anybody have experience with them? If they work, then it is just another KISS mechanism to monitor tire pressure.

Not fromt the reviews on Amazon.

 

[Doug McDow]

After reading some articles on Slime, I will not put it in the tires of the Elio. I think that it works for my Polaris Ranger, but problems for a auto. Thanks for the input. Doug

 

[Ty]

TPMS... two systems.

1. Indirect - uses antilock brake system to figure out if a wheel is rotating too fast... means it is possibly going flat. This is hard to do with a single rear wheel.
2. Direct - uses active sensors in each tire. It's more expensive but you don't have to spin the wheels to detect flats.

Hopefully, Elio will go with an active system. They could go with indirect up front and direct for the rear to keep costs down a bit.